We are coming up on the big day around here. Step one has been accomplished and everyone is in the barn and dry for shearing, ahead of our big storm coming in this afternoon.
Spoke to my shearer and she assures me she will battle her way thru the blizzard and get to my place by Thursday ready to make naked sheeps.
This is the biggest single day in our farming cycle. The day we get to see how well our sheep grew their fleece for a year. The day I get to see if I made all the right decisions for all of them. For me it’s a love/hate day. If I didn’t make the right choices, it will hurt all of us in the end. It’s a major stress day for me!! I know it also stresses the sheep a bit, but they all feel much better after getting their hair cut. They feel so much lighter and freer without an additional 10 or more pounds of wool on their backs.
Thanks to my friends and neighbors who helped move my sheep into the barn and then we got their two in. Those are the two white guys on the left in the video. They are Columbias and this will be their first shearing.
Everyone will stay in the barn a few days past shearing so they can adjust to their new body temp without being outside in the snow. This way we don’t risk hypothermia in them. Plus it gives me a few days to get the coats cleaned and fixed and we can cover them back up before they go out in that cold world and get all messy again.
As of now, we have a good crew of friends coming to help, and hopefully, some local FFA kids who are doing their sheep unit now and are looking for the experience of a small scale shearing. I’m making a big pot of chili, cornbread, cookies and pie, plus other folks are bringing food too, so a feast will end off the day in grand style.
Hard work deserves a good feed!
I hope you are enjoying this look into life on the farm! Stay tuned for more as the big day gets here!
Sounds From the Shearing Barn